Why is this year’s Cannes film festival revolutionary?

Forget wardrobe malfunctions and other actor’s tantrums, this year’s most prestigious film festival is all about embracing TV (or trying to)!

Cannes first wardrobe malfunction, courtesy of Bella Hadid

Indeed, the lineup at each year’s Cannes Film Festival often includes a few surprises, but this year we’re in for a treat!

For the first time (and apparently the last, read on), two Netflix movies will be competing in the race for the Palme d’Or. The outrage here is that those movies will never be screened in cinema theaters, but only on the TV subscription service!

Even the members of the jury disagreed, (president Pedro Almodovar suggested the movies should not win anything while his fellow jury member Will Smith defended Netflix move). The controversy heightened at the first movie premiere , Okja by Bong Joon-ho (excellent director of “The Snowpiercer”), where the film was booed and a curious curtain malfunction hid the screen for the first few minutes… It was later announced that from now on the festival would not shortlist any movies that would not be distributed in French cinemas theaters.

The second Netflix movie is called The Meyerowitz Stories and stars Adam Sandler, Dustin Hoffman and Ben Stiller, will screen on May, 21st.

This year, film festival will also host for the first time special screenings of TV shows! Two of its award winning directors, David Lynch and Jane Campion, will premiere their new series at Cannes!

The first two parts of Twin Peaks (the new TV series, not the movie that won the Palme d’Or ) will have a special screening on May, 26 th (while it will have already premiered on Sunday, 21st on Showtime.)

The second installment of Top of the Lake (titled “China Girl”), starring Elisabeth Moss and Nicole Kidman, will be screened in its entirety, before its actual premiers in September on Sundance TV.

So is Cannes embracing television after all?

In any case, if you’re a fan of the glam surrounding the festival and the gossip of the film industry, I suggest you watch a great French TV series about the world of talent agents, Call My Agent streaming on Netflix or here.